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174 publications found, searching for 'Policy Notes '

• Policy Notes April 21, 2025

  Remembering Pope Francis’s Call for a Universal Basic Wage

  Pavlina R. Tcherneva
  Abstract

  On April 21, 2025, a day after Easter Sunday, the world mourned the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis. Five years earlier, on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020—amid the devastating COVID-19 pandemic—he issued a powerful plea for economic justice, urging leaders to address the deepening crisis of insecurity faced by workers. His call for a universal […]

• Policy Notes April 21, 2025

  Trump’s Tariffs: Ending Globalization

  Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Giuliano Toshiro Yajima, and Gennaro Zezza
  Abstract

  The Trump administration is reintroducing a number of 40-year-old, Reagan-era economic and military policies, but is particularly preoccupied with the imposition of tariffs for all of the country’s imports. Trump, in his inaugural address, placed significant emphasis on what the imposition of tariffs would represent, in his view: “Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich […]

• Policy Notes November 07, 2024

  Trump Wins While Americans Vote for Progressive Policies

  Pavlina R. Tcherneva
  Abstract

  On November 5, 2024, American voters sent Donald Trump back to the White House. In 2020, he lost his bid for reelection to Joe Biden, after winning in 2016 against Hillary Clinton (but only thanks to the electoral college). This time, however, Trump won the popular vote. All the new energy that surrounded the Harris-Walz campaign […]

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• Policy Notes November 04, 2024

  Inflation

  Edward Lane
  Abstract

  Edward Lane surveys some of the main potential contributors to the recent period of elevated inflation rates in the US economy—focusing on supply disruptions, inflation-adjusted consumer spending, and consumer spending attributable to price markups—­and outlines prominent proposals being made by the 2024 presidential candidates that may have an impact on inflation.

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• Policy Notes No. 1 October 11, 2024

  The Boy Who Cried Wolf About Government Debt

  Yeva Nersisyan, and L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  In a New York Times editorial, David Leonhardt recounts Aesop’s apocryphal story about the boy and the wolf, warning that while deficit hawks have so far been wrong, the growing government debt will eventually bite. He reports the economic plans of both presidential candidates would add to the debt that will soon exceed GDP and grow to 130 percent of annual output under a President Harris, or 140 percent with a Trump presidency.

  The story of the boy and the wolf was a fable, although it was within the realm of possibility. The fable of the debt wolf is not. While there are real world wolves—Leonhardt mentions climate catastrophe and autocratic leaders, and the authors would add rising inequality and the concentration of economic and political power in the hands of billionaires—authors Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray assert, federal debt is not one of them.

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• Policy Notes March 14, 2024

  European Job Guarantee

  Rania Antonopoulos
  Abstract

  Despite the gradual economic recovery and positive policy responses during the COVID-19 pandemic, the problem of long-term unemployment continues to plague millions in Europe. To effectively address this and other overlapping crises in Europe, we need radical changes, according to Senior Scholar Rania Antonopoulos; and in this context, the job guarantee policy has been gaining […]

  Download Policy Note 2024/4 PDF (293.42 KB)
• Policy Notes No. 4 August 23, 2023

  Effects of Forced Formalization (Demonetization) in the Indian Economy 

  Nischal Dhungel
  Abstract

  Nischal Dhungel examines the impact of India’s demonetization experiment—an effort at “forced formalization” of the economy. He urges a more organic approach to formalization, pairing efforts to bring the unbanked population into the banking system with greater funding and accessibility for India’s signature employment guarantee program.

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• Policy Notes No. 3 July 24, 2023

  In Defense of Low Interest Rates

  James K. Galbraith
  Abstract

  In recalling John Maynard Keynes’s revolutionary theory of interest, reviewing the doctrines Keynes sought to overthrow, and analyzing the structural transformations of the US economy, James K. Galbraith maintains there is no alternative to a policy of low interest rates. However, such a policy cannot be effective, he argues, without a radical restructuring of the […]

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• Policy Notes No. 4 August 05, 2022

  Κοινωνικό κράτος και ανταγωνιστικότητα

  Alexandra Papaisidorou, and Emmanouil Karakostas
  Abstract

  Με τη δημοσίευση το 1971 της Θεωρίας της δικαιοσύνης του Rawls μας προσφέρεται μια πλήρως επεξεργασμένη πρόταση για τη δίκαιη κοινωνία και τους βασικούς θεσμούς της. Η κοινωνία αυτή είναι μια δημοκρατική κοινωνία που διέπεται από τη δικαιοσύνη ως ακριβοδικία, δηλαδή μια κοινωνία όπου όλοι οι πολίτες θα απολαμβάνουν συμβατά μεταξύ τους δικαιώματα και ελευθερίες, […]

  Download Σημείωση Πολιτικής 2022/4 PDF (145.80 KB)
• Policy Notes No. 4 August 05, 2022

  Social State and Competitiveness

  Alexandra Papaisidorou, and Emmanouil Karakostas
• Policy Notes No. 3 May 12, 2022

  Chile: The Road to Joy Is Paved with Obstacles

  Giuliano Toshiro Yajima
  Abstract

  In the second round of the Chilean presidential elections, the coalition led by Gabriel Boric secured a victory under the premise of delivering long-awaited reforms to a financially volatile, structurally fragile, and deeply unequal economic structure. In this policy note, Giuliano Toshiro Yajima sheds light on these three aspects of the Chilean economy, showing that […]

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• Policy Notes No. 2 April 22, 2022

  A Race to the Bottom

  Nikolaos Rodousakis, Vlassis Missos, and George Soklis
  Abstract

  More than a decade after the 2009 crisis, the standards of living of the Greek population are still contracting and the prospects are gloomy. In this policy note, Vlassis Missos, Research Associate Nikolaos Rodousakis, and George Soklis deal with how to approach the measurement of income loss and poverty in Greece and argue for the […]

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• Policy Notes No. 1 February 25, 2022

  What Is Happening to the New Greek National Accounts Data?

  Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Gennaro Zezza, and Nikolaos Rodousakis
  Abstract

  In 2020, the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ElStat) started a revision of the national accounts for Greece to bring them into line with the new European System of Accounts. Data from national accounts have gained more relevance as a crucial set of information for policy, especially in the eurozone, since many indicators—like the size of the […]

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• Policy Notes No. 1 February 25, 2022

  Τι συμβαίνει με τα νέα δεδομένα των ελληνικών Εθνικών Λογαριασμών;

  Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Gennaro Zezza, and Nikolaos Rodousakis
  Abstract

  Tο 2020, η Ελληνική Στατιστική Αρχή (ΕΛΣΤΑΤ) ξεκίνησε την αναθεώρηση των εθνικών λογαριασμών για την Ελλάδα, προκειμένου να εναρμονιστούν με το νέο Ευρωπαϊκό Σύστημα Λογαριασμών. Τα δεδομένα από τους εθνικούς λογαριασμούς έχουν αποκτήσει μεγαλύτερη σημασία ως ένα κρίσιμο σύνολο πληροφοριών για την πολιτική, ειδικά στην ευρωζώνη, καθώς πολλοί δείκτες -όπως το μέγεθος του δημόσιου ελλείμματος […]

  Download ΣΗΜΕΙΩΜΑΤΑ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΗΣ No. 1 | Μάρτιος 2022 PDF (2.11 MB)
• Policy Notes No. 4 November 10, 2021

  A Recovery for Whom?

  Nikolaos Rodousakis, Vlassis Missos, and George Soklis
  Abstract

  The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed multiple risks faced by economies whose production structures depend on the volatility of international conditions. In the case of Greece, this has manifested itself in the severe impact the pandemic has had on one of the linchpins of the Greek economy: the tourism sector. Vlassis Missos, Nikolaos Rodousakis, and George […]

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• Policy Notes No. 3 June 08, 2021

  Why President Biden Should Eliminate Corporate Taxes to Build Back Better

  L. Randall Wray, and Edward Lane
  Abstract

  Edward Lane and L. Randall Wray explain how federal taxes on corporate profits are not well suited to either containing inflationary pressures or reducing inequality. They are not only a poor complement to President Biden’s proposed infrastructure plans, but are inefficient and ineffective taxes more broadly, according to Lane and Wray. The authors follow Hyman […]

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• Policy Notes No. 2 May 13, 2021

  Gender and Race in the Spotlight during the COVID-19 Pandemic

  Luiza Nassif Pires, Luísa Cardoso, and Ana Luíza Matos de Oliveira
  Abstract

  Research Scholar Luiza Nassif-Pires, Luísa Cardoso, and Ana Luíza Matos de Oliveira analyze the importance of the “emergency benefit” (Auxílio Emergencial) in containing the increase in poverty and extreme poverty in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. They find the emergency benefit mitigated the loss of income, brought the poverty rate to historically low levels, and […]

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• Policy Notes No. 1 January 19, 2021

  Keynes’s Clearing Union Is Alive and Well and Living in Your Mobile Phone

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  While governments may consider implementation of John Maynard Keynes’s original clearing union proposal for the international financial architecture too difficult or radical, Senior Scholar Jan Kregel notes that the private sector has already produced a virtual equivalent of an international global monetary system. Currently, this system is employed as an extension of the international mobile […]

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• Policy Notes No. 6 October 15, 2020

  Alternative Macro Policy Response for a Pandemic Recession

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  As COVID-19 infection and test positivity rates rise in the United States and federal stimulus plans expire, Senior Scholar Jan Kregel articulates an alternative approach to analyzing the economic problems raised by the pandemic and organizing an appropriate policy response. In contrast to both the mainstream and some Keynesian-inspired approaches, Kregel advocates a central role […]

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• Policy Notes No. 5 July 10, 2020

  Debt Management and the Fiscal Balance

  Jan Toporowski
  Abstract

  In this policy note, Jan Toporowski provides an analysis of government debt management using fiscal principles derived from the work of Michał Kalecki. Dividing the government’s budget into a “functional” and “financial” budget, Toporowski demonstrates how a financial budget balance—servicing government debt from taxes on wealth and profits that do not affect incomes and expenditures […]

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• Policy Notes No. 4 May 05, 2020

  Guaranteeing Employment during the Pandemic and Beyond

  Pavlina R. Tcherneva
  Abstract

  The ongoing job losses, already numbering in the tens of millions, and the mass unemployment that will remain once the COVID-19 crisis has passed are of our own making, argues Pavlina R. Tcherneva, created by our inability to conceive of policies that protect and create jobs on demand. There is another option: instead of capitulating […]

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• Policy Notes No. 3 April 20, 2020

  Immigration Policy Undermines the US Pandemic Response

  Martha Tepepa
  Abstract

  Research Scholar Martha Tepepa explains how the US response to the COVID-19 crisis will be hindered by its approach to immigration policy. The administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration campaign creates a public health risk in the context of this pandemic, and the recent implementation of the “Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds” final rule penalizing noncitizen recipients […]

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• Policy Notes No. 2 April 03, 2020

  Stabilizing State and Local Budgets through the Pandemic and Beyond

  Alex Williams
  Abstract

  The federal government appears to have abandoned the idea of a coordinated public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving the entirety to state and local governments. Meanwhile, the economic standstill resulting from necessary public health measures will soon cripple state and local budgets. Alexander Williams outlines a proposal for an intragovernmental automatic stabilizer program […]

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• Policy Notes No. 1 March 19, 2020

  When Two Minskyan Processes Meet a Large Shock

  Michalis Nikiforos
  Abstract

  The spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) is a major shock for the US and global economies. Research Scholar Michalis Nikiforos explains that we cannot fully understand the economic implications of the pandemic without reference to two Minskyan processes at play in the US economy: the growing divergence of stock market prices from output prices, […]

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